Historical coverage for data sources in OpenSAFELY¶

This OpenSAFELY notebook provides information about historical coverage of externally linked data sources in the OpenSAFELY-TPP database. It is part of the technical documentation for users of the OpenSAFELY platform to guide analyses and it should not be used for inference about any aspect of the pandemic, public health, or health service activity. For the avoidance of doubt: any clinical or epidemiological interpretation of this raw information is likely to be a misinterpretation.

If you would like to apply to use the OpenSAFELY platform please read our documentation, the principles of the platform, and information about our pilot programme for onboarding external users.

If you want to see the Python code used to create this notebook, you can view it on GitHub.

Data sources¶

Data sources are listed below, with the table name in the database given in brackets:

• All positive or negative SARS-CoV2 tests, from SGSS (SGSS_AllTests_Positive and SGSS_AllTests_Negative)
• First-ever positive or negative SARS-CoV2 test, from SGSS (SGSS_Positive and SGSS_Negative)
• A&E attendances, from SUS Emergency Care data (EC)
• In-patient hospital admissions, from SUS Admitted Patient Care Spells data (APCS)
• Out-patient hospital appointments, from SUS (OPA)
• Covid-related ICU admissions, from ICNARC (ICNARC)
• Covid-related in-hospital deaths, from CPNS (CPNS)
• COVID-19 Infection Survey, from ONS (ONS_CIS)
• All-cause registered deaths, from ONS (ONS_Deaths)
• High cost drugs (HighCostDrugs)
• Unique Property Reference Number, used for deriving household variables (UPRN)
• Master Patient Index (MPI)
• Health and Social Care Worker identification, collected at the point of vaccination (HealthCareWorker)

Notebook run date¶

Event activity in external datasets¶

In the figures below, event activity (counts of patient events such as hospital admissions and deaths) is reported for external data sources from no earlier than 1 January 2016 up to the notebook run date.

Note that the OpenSAFELY-TPP database only includes people who were ever registered at a GP practice using TPP's SystmOne clinical information system (roughly 40% of GP practices) on or after 1 January 2009, including those who have since deregistered or died. The data therefore captures activity for these patients only.

Counts of five or less are redacted.